You do a search in Google, Yahoo! or any other popular search engine, you will be able to find people praising about QuickBooks; and of course, there will be people cursing about QuickBooks. So, is QuickBooks the best accounting software for small business?
I have been using QuickBooks for more than 10 years. To me, user should be looking at your own requirement rather than comparing feature by feature. During my demonstration; prospect like to compare QuickBooks with other brands. Some even ask me to list out all the features in QuickBooks.
When comparing QuickBooks with other brand, user should compare QuickBooks with other accounting software which is at the same level. For example, you should be comparing QuickBooks with software like MYOB or Peachtree. You should not be comparing QuickBooks (which cost between S$400.00 to S$5,000.00) with higher end software like ACCPAC or SAGE accounting software (which can cost 5 figures or even more). There must be a balance between your budget and the software features.
All software had it pros and cons, so understanding your own requirement is a very important factor when you choosing the accounting software.
You should set your own expectation right. I always tell my prospect to be more realistic, after you wrote down all the features that you needed (I call this as a wish list); then, look at your budget, start removing those ‘luxury’ good to have features if your budget does not allow you to have those ‘luxury’ features.
Next, you should be also looking at how user-friendly is this software. I like software that is user friendly. I like software like QuickBooks (I used it for my accounts) and ACT! (I used it for my contact management). As a layman, who does not have much technical knowledge, you need software that is easy to manage. QuickBooks is one of the software that is simple enough that most of the user will be able to handle it.
Two of the features that I like about QuickBooks is that; QuickBooks does not require to use an accounts number (you can turn it on if you need them) and it does not require to do any year-end closing (of course, you can set a closing date to lock up your account). To understand more about the feature, you can sign up my QuickBooks demonstration at www.QB.sg.
If you are just started a new small business and your budget is limited, you may consider QuickBooks Accounting 2009/10 (Asia). This software will be a great help to you if you are looking for something better than a Spreadsheet to do your accounts. QuickBooks Accounting 2009/10 (Asia) is like a value meal in the fast food restaurant. This software cost only S$399.00; it comes with great features such as Stock (inventory) and exporting report into Microsoft Excel. To me, QuickBooks Accounting 2009/10 (Asia) can be considered as a value for money software tool.
As long as the software can meet 80% of what you need; personally, I think this off-the-shelve software should be consider as good tool. Besides, this software must be simple enough that you can navigate around it without much problem.
If you are not sure on whether can QuickBooks serve your needs, do sign up a free QuickBooks demonstration at our office and we will explain to you how you can use QuickBooks for your business.
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